Repairing Inaccessible PDFs in Foxit PhantomPDF
If you haven't already checked out our Digital Accessibility Training content, please do so when you have the chance! These resources will provide some context for the accessibility remediation checkpoints below.
What is Foxit PhantomPDF?
How Do I Use Foxit PhantomPDF for Remediation?
Can I Collect Digital Signatures with PDF Forms?
What is Foxit PhantomPDF?
Foxit PhantomPDF is a professional PDF editor designed to create, edit, manipulate, and print files in the Portable Document Format (PDF).
Note: a professional PDF editor like Adobe Acrobat Pro or Foxit PhantomPDF is typically required in order to generate fully accessible PDFs. Departments may purchase Foxit PhantomPDF or Adobe Acrobat Pro by submitting a software installation request.
How Do I Use PhantomPDF for Remediation?
When you create an accessible document, form, or presentation with an authoring tool that allows for accessible design, remediation in Foxit PhantomPDF will likely be necessary. When you inherit a PDF, and the original document is unavailable, remediation may take some time and effort.
Please refer to Remediating Inaccessible Documents and Forms for more information.
Checkpoints for Standard PDFs
Review Properties
In the File tab, select Properties. Ensure a descriptive Title is present in the Description menu.
In the Advanced menu, select the Language from the dropdown that best fits the content of your document.
Run Optical Character Recognition (OCR) (if needed)
Navigate to Convert > Recognize Text > Current File
Choose the language(s) used in your document
Select the Find All Suspect (Show all OCR results that may need to be changed.) option.
After automatic recognition is complete, the OCR Suspects dialog box will appear if any portions of text require manual correction
Autotag (if necessary)
Navigate to File > Properties > Description > Tagged PDF to verify the PDF is tagged
If the PDF is not tagged, navigate to Convert > Recognize Text > Current File, then Accessibility > Autotag Document to add tags.
Correct Reading Order
In the Accessibility tab, select Reading Order. When the Touch Up Reading Order dialog window appears, the document content will display in separate highlighted regions.
If Page content order is selected under the Show page content groups option, the regions will be ordered with numbers. If Structure types is selected, the regions will be labeled by structure tag types, such as “P” for paragraph, “H2” for Heading 2, or “Figure”.
If the numbered regions don’t follow another in the intended page progression then, select Show Order Panel in the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box, and reorder them in the Order panel.
To add a new tag, open the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box, select a region of untagged content, and select the corresponding option in the dialog box.
Add Alternative Text
With the Touch Up Reading Order dialog box open, right click on any images without alternate text and select Edit alternate text.
For more information on alternate text best practices, please refer to our Alt Text for Images help article.
Repair Tag Structure
Ensure accurate tag structure for accurate headings, lists, links, tables, and table headers.
Headings should follow True Heading Structure
Lists should be formatted as detailed in Foxit PDF List Accessibility, found on the Foxit Accessibility web page.
Tables should be formatted as detailed in Foxit PDF Table Accessibility, found on the Foxit Accessibility web page.
Checkpoints for PDF Forms
PDF Forms require some additional checkpoints to validate their accessibility. Please refer to WebAIM’s Accessible Forms in PhantomPDF article for Foxit PhantomPDF-specific form accessibility checkpoints.
For more general information regarding form accessibility and alternatives to PDF forms, please refer to the Form Accessibility PSU help article.
Can I Collect Digital Signatures with PDF Forms?
You may use an accessible, fillable PDF by itself for information-gathering situations, in which a legal signature is not required. For purposes of validation and security, you should distribute externally-facing PDF forms that require a legal signature via the Office of Information Technology’s supported e-signature program, Adobe Sign.
If you have any additional questions regarding digital accessibility for public-facing digital resources at PSU, please email help-accessibility@pdx.edu or submit a Digital Accessibility Support ticket.